Claustrophobia
by TigerLily1818
Summary: His breathing grew harder, he felt as if the space was slowly shrinking in the pure darkness. The only light what so ever was coming from the little sliver under the door. Sitting down on the floor. Dick brought his legs to his chest holding them closely as he tried to slow his breaths.


_**A.N. IMPORTANT READ **_

_**Ages of Characters**_

_**Richard "Dick Grayson - 18**_

_**Jason Todd - 16**_

_**Tim Drake – 12**_

_**Damien Wayne – 10**_

_**I know these aren't the correct ages, by in this story it's what I made them so hope that's cool. A little background info on my take on Dick's life after the circus and before Bruce adopts him. He was put in a foster home for three months before he was able to leave with Bruce, and let's just say it wasn't a friendly environment.**_

Out of all of the Bats Dick had the most patients in dealing with Damien, Even Bruce (who was the kids father) clashed with his son way too often , probably cause they were insanely alike, and Dick always got along with Bruce so it would make sense that he got along with his angsty son. Oh course they still had problems with each other and fought like any normal pair of siblings would do. But Dick's overly cheerful and happy personality somehow balanced Damien's hostile and somewhat rude one. But sometimes Dami pushes his brother a little too far; this is one of those times.

"And mine and Alfred's numbers are both on the fridge along with the emergency numbers and the Batcave is off limits, and hide the knifes from Damien and-"

"Bruce calm down everything will be fine, go enjoy your night out with Selina." Dick chuckled and placed a hand on his "fathers" shoulder as he mock pushed him to the door. He gave a small smile.

"Sorry, it just it's the first time that I left you kids alone with no Alfred or anything, and Damien is still threatening to kill Tim and Jason has been really moody lately." Dick stopped Bruce in mid rant as he handed the man his wallet and keys.

"We. Will. Be .fine! Jason just being a teenager, Tim is still up in the rafters, and Dami…..well I'll just keep an eye on him." Bruce sighed and pulled on his coat.

"Dick are you sure you'll be fine, I can always call and postpone Selina would under-"

"NO! You aren't postponing you've already postponed twice, Selina may be easygoing but after a third time she'd get piss. Now go it's only for a few hours." Casting one last look of uncertainty over his shoulder, Bruce turned out the door and walked to his car, before finally with some hesitation he was gone. "Finally" Dick muttered under his breath before turning towards the noisy manor. What he saw made him want to call Bruce back in. Tim was hanging from the rafters jumping all around while humming the James Bond them song. Dami was a rafter over glaring at Tim holding a very pointy knife and a sling shot and Jason was lounging in the lounge (who would have guessed) bobbing his head to New Perspective by Panic at the Disco and throwing popcorn pieces up into the air trying to catch them in his mouth…..This was going to be a long few hours.

"Okay, Tim, Dami, GET DOWN HERE!" yelled Dick up to his brothers who just looked down amusingly at him.

"No thinks, I'm quite enjoying myself up here thank you." Came Tim's cocky reply as he jumped to yet another rafter.

"Timothy" Dick said warningly.

"Richard" Tim mocked; Dick sighed and turned to his other brother.

"Dami, can you please get done here." Damien scowled at the nickname that had been given to him.

"Don't waste your time if Drake insists on staying up hear then I most certainly am and I refuse to listen to you Grayson, if you insist on calling me that wretched variation of my name." Dick rubbed his eyes in frustration, usually he had more patients when it came to his brothers, but he was up all night after patrolling, studding for his finals and had gotten two hours less sleep then he normal gets (and he doesn't get much sleep to begin with). He heard a chuckle to his right and looked over to see Jason smugly watching him while attempting to catch another piece of popcorn.

"Having fun?" Dick glared

"You know instead of just seating there you could, oh I don't know help me." He replied. Jason just snickered and went back to his snack. Dick was about to comment more when he heard a yell from above. Looking up he saw Damien launch himself to where Tim was, Tim having pretty good reflexes jumped out of the way just in time. In frustration Dami threw his knife at his brother who dodged the blade just in time.

"Damien! You know better than to through knifes at people especially your brother." Dami glowered below him muttering something about "Drake starting it.". "I don't care who started it I'm stopping it, now get down here." Tim jumped down with a sigh landing next to Dick, but Damien stayed up there.

"No" everyone froze as soon as the word left the youngest mouth. Jason stared at them mouth hanging slightly open in surprise showing a few pieces of unchewed popcorn, Tim was looking up at the rafters baffled, waiting to see what would happen. Dick's voice got deathly quiet.

"Get down here right now." A pause and then Damien shook his head at his older brother, another silence. "I'm going to give you till the count of three to get off those rafters and come here." (oh snap, things just got serious.)

"1…." Damien looked down at Dick with a look of confusion of how he should proceed.

"2….." All inhabitants of the house where staring at the two birds now. Damien looked slightly frazzled, but still held his place.

"3…" Dick growled, absolute silence is what greeted that last word and yet still Damien hadn't moved. "Damien Wayne you are in so much trouble right now." And with that Dick hoped onto the stair railing and then to the rafter right next to Damien, who had a look of surprise on his face. "Get down." This time he didn't hesitate to comply too his brothers request and jumped to the banister, slide down and got to his feet right night to Tim. Dick Jumped straight down started upstairs and motioned for him to follow. "You're going to stay in your room for the rest of the night, no TV. No laptop, no cell-phone, and no technology of any kind." Damien gawked at his brother.

"But Grayson that's not fair" Dick sent a bat-glare over his shoulder.

"Maybe next time you'll think twice about trying to kill your brother." Damien began to fume silently behind his brother. When he saw an open closet with a key in the handle and got an idea, Grayson couldn't punish him if Grayson was locked in a closet. Without pausing to think of the consequences. Damien kicked his brother in the side and pushed him into the closet, caught off guard Dick stumbled and wasn't able to catch himself before Damien slammed the door shut, clicked it locked and slide the key from the handle into his pocket. Dick froze, no. He hurriedly got up and tried the handle that wouldn't budge; he started panicking and banged on the door.

"Damien! Damien! Come on let me out." He heard a stifled laugh from the other side.

"Pass, Grayson I'd rather leave you in there for the time being, thanks." Dick heard footsteps grow farther away from him and felt his breath come out in labored gusts. He started banging and kicking the door.

"Come on Damien! This isn't funny, LET ME OUT! LET ME OUT OF HERE. PLEASE, YOU'RE NOT IN TROUBLE, JUST LET ME OUT!" He heard nothing and he knew no one was coming. His breathing grew harder he felt as if the space was slowly shrinking in the pure darkness the only light what so ever coming from the little sliver under the door. Sitting down on the floor. Dick brought his legs to his chest holding them closely as he tried to slow his breaths. This was going to be a long night.

_Bruce P.O.V._

_Four hours later_

Bruce was making his way home after his date with Selina and was in a great mood. He was so happy Dick had convinced him to go, it had been just what he needed. Dick was right he shouldn't worry as much. He turned into the driveway of the manor and walked swiftly over his door step when he opened the door he had a strong urge to flee. The Manor was demolished. Empty pop cans and candy wrappers littered the ground. The banister was bent outward at on odd angle signifying it was broken. Ninja stars and knifes where sticking in the walls at odd intervals, and _**I-Con for Hire's Theater**_ was blaring from the stereo in the back ground. But the worst was his sons. Jason was the least damaged out of the three he was passed out asleep on the couch that he had been on when Bruce had left. Damien and Tim however were wrestling each other in the middle of the entry way, Damien had a busted lip and Tim had a black right eye, both were covered in small blood splatters and bruises, and Dick was nowhere in sight. Picking up the remote to the stereo from the floor Bruce turned off the blaring music. Startling Jason awake.

"What is going on here?" he said in a quietly deadly voice. Tim and Damien froze in mid stance eyes wide open staring a Bruce in surprise and a little fear. The whole thing would have looked comical if he hadn't been so mad.

"Uh..Bruce…uh..welcome home." Tim said trying to sound cherry but faltering at the look he got in return.

"Where's Dick." He said wanting a good explanation to why the eighteen year old wasn't watching his brothers.

"well..um..yeah see Dicks kind of..indisposed." Tim said nervously. Bruce's eyes narrowed.

"What do you mean indisposed?" he growled sounding much more like Batman. Damien fidgeted and Bruce fixed him with his stare.

"I kind of..um..may have possibly….locked him in…a closet." Bruce froze memories of his oldest son having panic attacks due to Claustrophobia fresh in his mind. Bruce started to panic.

"When did you lock him in one, which one is he in?" He said quickly the children stared at his change of tone, but Damien wasn't hesitant to answer.

"Um a few hours ago, the one upstairs adjacent to my bedroom. Father what's wrong?" Ignoring his sons question Bruce bounded up the stairs and ran down the hallway, only vaguely aware of the three sets of footfalls following him. He skidded in front of the closet and without waiting for a key kicked the door open. He found Dick in the farthest corner head buried into his knees and arms, shaking slightly as sobs erupted from him. Gently he pulled his son out into the hallway and started rubbing circles into his back as he wrapped his other arm around him.

"It's okay dick, hush you're okay, no one's going to hurt you your safe." He tensed at the first touch but realizing who it was burrowed into my chest still shaking and sobbing quietly. "Your safe your okay, hush now it's okay." I heard three sets of gasps as the boys finally caught up to us. But I didn't acknowledge them my attention fully on Dick. We sat there for a while until finally his breaths calmed and he slipped into sleep. Ignoring the fact that Dick was now a eighteen year old man, I picked him up from the floor cradling him to my chest, I walked down the hall to his room placing him gently on the bed and tucking him in, I saw tear tracks surrounding his face. Kissing his forehead softly I left the room and quietly closed his door. Turning around I was met with three wide eyed curious gazes. Jason spoke first.

"What the hell was that about?" Too tired to scold him for his cursing I motioned for them to follow me downstairs. When we got to the living room two out of the three boys sat on the couch. Damien who refused to sit next to Timmy was in an arm chair.

"Now" I started off my voice cold. "Whose bright idea was it to lock Dick into a closet?" Silence and then slowly Damien raised his hand.

"It was my fault father." I nodded my head at him.

"Were you aware before locking him in a closet, that your brother has been highly Claustrophobic since he was eight?" A shocked silence followed they hadn't known that. Damien shook his head. "Now I don't want to know what stupid reason of why you locked Dick in a closet, but not only will you be apologizing to him tomorrow but you and your brothers are going to clean this manor spotless and fix all that you damaged tonight, do I make myself clear." All three immediately nodded. "Good now go to bed; you can clean up in the morning." Bruce went to leave the room, but was stopped by Jason.

"Wait Bruce." He sighed tiredly and rubbed his hand wearily over his eyes.

"What is it Jason?"  
"I was just wondering why Dick's Claustrophobic, I mean usually something happens to give people a certain fear, and we've been in tight closed off spaces a bunch of times but he's never freaked out then." Bruce sighed once more turning to look at his sons who were now staring intently at him.

"Dick isn't really claustrophobic it's more of being locked up in a closet that scares him." This statement made him receive three very confused looks.*insert another sigh* "When Dicks parents were murdered he didn't come to live with me straight off the bat, he was put in a foster home for three months, and the people who lived there weren't good people. The man Jim was a drunk and a druggy along with his wife Clara, and he was very abusive to Dick when he got there." Everyone stilled registering what Bruce was saying. "I was with them the social service members when they went to pick up Dick for adoption, because I needed to meet him first. When we found him he was locked in a dark closet that stunk. It had been obvious he had been in there for a few days. He was beaten pretty badly and very scared. When we first opened the door he cowered into the Corner and flinched every time someone touched him. It took us an hour before he finally believed we wouldn't hurt him and got him to leave. Ever since then he's always been afraid of being locked in a closet or a closet like space, it unsettles him." When Bruce finished everyone was wearing a matching expression of horror on their face even Damien who usually scoffed at people who showed emotion.

"I'm sorry Father, that I did that to Gray- Dick." He mumbled, everyone looked up surprised he was actually saying he was sorry for something.

"It's okay little D you didn't know" came a voice from the hallway, everyone turned around to see Dick leaning against the doorframe. More composed of himself but you could still see his that his red eyes were puffy. Damien got up from the armchair he was perched on and walked slowly to Dick.

"I'm sorry Grayson for being so troublesome this evening." Dick smiled and pulled him into a hug. Damien stiffened for a moment then relaxing hugged Grayson back.

"It's okay Dami thank you for apologizing." Damien did not comment on the nickname instead shot Dick a small smile. Dick smiled back "oh and next time you get mad at me try not to karate kick me and then lock me into a room okay?" Damien mock glared at Dick.

"No promises Grayson, Father said not to lock you into a closet, trunks, chest, and rooms are all fair game in my book."

_A.N._

_Done This is just a one shot that popped into my head hope you enjoyed. Review please and check out my other story's. _


End file.
